We spoke with a longtime Philadelphia source about our previous story, on why the Fed's sought to limit the scope of the FBI's investigation into the so-called East Coast LCN Enterprise (see indictment, here).

Was it out of hubris or incompetence, we wrote.

Our source noted that the FBI's local office in Philadelphia continues its investigation of the Philadelphia mob no matter what happens in New York's Southern District's case.

He added: "Your report on the Philadelphia-New York Fed's is right on point," he said. (We like him, a lot.) "If they would have dealt with Philadelphia and Miami law enforcement instead of trying to make a big media splash, the indictments would be a lot stronger.

"But with the problems with (John J.R.) Rubeo now it might work out better for Philadelphia and Miami."

Rubeo wore a wire against many defendants in the case, including the two alleged highest-ranking ones, Pasquale (Patsy) Parrello and Joseph Merlino.

Rubeo was a Genovese crime family associate who became a cooperating witness. During the investigation, Rubeo worked in New York for Genovese skipper Parrello, who sent him to Florida to work with Merlino as part of an alleged health care fraud racket that had something to do with prescription compound pain relief creams. (They were actually making a ton of money as that stuff sells for about 100 times the manufacturing cost.)

That health-care fraud, plus other alleged crimes, led to Merlino, Parrello and 44 other alleged mobsters getting indicted last August.

Back then, the press depicted the East Coast LCN Enterprise as another Mafia Takedown Day, which is actually fitting, considering how that case also was overbilled.

Gang Land News started reporting about problems with this case from the beginning, noting previously that the Feds dropped the indictment's top charges and pushed for extra-sweetened plea deals.

Apparently, the five-year investigation into the case was conducted quietly by New York FBI and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office.

Only after the indictment was unsealed and arrests were made did investigators in Philadelphia get ahold of secretly recorded conversations made by Rubeo.

Edwin Jacobs, Merlino’s longtime attorney, addressed some of the indictment's weirdness not long after the busts. In an interview with PhillyMag, he said he was "puzzled" by the indictment.“All I can tell you at this point is, I’ve seen a lot of racketeering indictments, and they’re usually fact- and date-specific. This one is not. It’s also very short on any allegations of violence, which most prosecutors claim is the foundation of organized crime. You read this indictment, and you don’t find so much as a single cinder block.”Jacobs said that "the indictment was too broad and general to draw any conclusions about what it could ultimately mean for Merlino’s future. “Many times when you read these indictments, it’s sort of a script for the trial. This is not even an outline. It names a lot of people, and a lot of criminal statutes … but there’s not much meat on these bones.”

Speaking about the investigation in general, our source noted that New York's handling of the investigation may have additional ramifications."New York jumping the gun could've put informants in the investigations into the Miami and Philadelphia Cosa Nostras in danger," he said.

He's a former associate of the Philadelphia crime family, too, not law enforcement. He never flipped. But he did turn his back on the mob and works for a living today.

"It's a far cry from my life of crime in the early days, but I'm still here unlike others."

It actually began on July 11, although July 16, this coming Sunday, will be the big day for the street celebration, which is expected to draw around 100,000 spectators.

Hammonton is one of 56 South Jersey municipalities that are included within the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, a protected natural area spread out on 1,100,000 acres.

Hammonton also is where a notorious former mobster in the Philadelphia/South Jersey Cosa Nostra once held court from the booth of a diner on the White Horse Pike, as The Press of Atlantic City reported.

"It's like the old saying, 'Be careful what you wish for,'" he said. "I wasn't smart enough to realize how much my life would change."

Ron (Big Ron) Previte is a former federal witness, as well as a former Philadelphia police officer and former member of the Philadelphia crime family. George Anastia used Big Ron's life story in The Last Gangster to chronicle the downfall of the larger more powerful earlier iteration of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra.

On the show 60 Minutes, he told correspondent Steve Kroft: "I used to see guys that were bookmaking, doing things, driving Cadillacs. Back then, they used to wear the Fedoras. I guess that's what I aspired to be, so to speak. I didn't want to be an astronaut … I wanted to be in that world. I wanted, it's a shame to say, I always wanted to do wrong."

"I was a crook in the police department. I robbed everything I could. But by the same token, I liked making arrests, too. I got accommodations.

"I had a good work record. Except I was a crook. But most of the people I worked with were crooks … I never learned about crime 'til I went in the police department. I always said that I really became an adept thief when I went in the Philadelphia police department.

"It was a nice life. It was good. And plus, I had the badge. I couldn't get any trouble."

Previte, far right.

Previte also said that Merlino and his associates weren't good at being Mafiosi.

"They weren't gangsters. They were crooks, thieves. I always figured I developed crime. I did this, or did that. And I worked it. They didn't work anything. They just wanted to rob everybody and their own people."

Previte was worried about his survival rate during the Merlino regime, which fueled his desire to flip, George Anastasia said.

"When he got into the top of the organization he looked around and he said, you know, 'I'm not gonna survive. They're gonna kill me. I'm gonna kill them. Or we're all gonna go to jail," Anastasia said on 60 Minutes.

"So being the intelligent individual that he was, and the mercenary that he was, he said, you know, 'I gotta have an insurance policy.'"

He was 60 at the time of the Press of AC interview and was quite bored with life as a citizen.

"I'm totally bored," he said.

Standing 6-feet, Previte was lugging around a 300-pound frame at the time.

He'd made millions working as a bookie, loan shark and overall scam artist.

"This is the biggest down I've ever had. I'm not a guy who can sit in a lounge chair. I can't relax relaxing."

His Mafia career ended in 1999 when law enforcement authorities arrested mob boss Joey Merlino and his associates for everything from fencing stolen property to murder.

Previte was named the government's star witness in that case, plus another.

Merlino and his co-defendants were convicted primarily because of the audiotapes Previte secretly recorded for the FBI from 1997 to 1999.

The government paid him more than $750,000 plus benefits for his efforts.

As the Press reported:

"Some saw it as Previte's greatest hustle. Previte calls the record sum he collected from the government "hazardous-duty pay" and challenges critics to do what he did. He is not sure he would do it again himself."

"I don't regret doing the deal," Previte says. "I just regret my life as it once was no longer is."

"I simply don't know why people are interested in it," Previte said.

He's referring to the public's interest in the Mafia.

"I always considered myself a general practitioner of crime," Previte says. "I got up in early every day, 7 o'clock, and worked on developing crime."

Previte did the heavy lifting at Merlino's trial, law enforcement sources have said.

"The government's other star witness, former mob boss Ralph Natale, unraveled when defense attorneys questioned his legitimacy."
Natale also has a book out: The Last Don Standing.

DOMINICK CICALE, A FORMER CAPO IN THE BONANNO CRIME FAMILY, ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS
In 1999, Bronx-based Dominick Cicale finished his second years-long bit and hooked up with Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, then an up-and-coming member of the Bronx faction of the Bonanno crime family.

Initially he'd been closely affiliated with "Big Ernie" in the Genovese family.

Roy DeMeo was a ruthless killer -- not a nice guy, not a guy worthy of admiration in any way -- but in the context of Cosa Nostra he is an endlessly fascinating portrait of a mobster who had a great business sense.

Paulie Castellano didn't want to make Roy, but eventually was too greedy not to--Roy was bringing in too much cash to not notice, combined with a blood lust that enabled him to commit torture murders not common even for mobsters.
Roy had a crew of young wannabes, many of whom would eventually get their buttons, such as Gemini Twins Anthony Senter and Joey Testa, who hooked up with the Lucchese's after leaving Roy.

As reported, an FBI bug installed in the home of Gambino family soldier Angelo Ruggiero picked up an intriguing conversation between Angelo and Gene Gotti, a brother of John Gotti.

In the conversation, it is revealed Paul Castellano had put out a hit on DeMeo, but was having difficulty finding someone willing to do the job. Gene Gotti said his brother Joh…

He was considered a dangerous man. A truck hijacker and gun-runner, he was tied to two crime families (the Bonannos and Lucheses) and operated a swag-filled warehouse.

He was known for his nice gold watches and good suits. He also preferred driving around in a Mercedes.

In reality, his name was not Vincent Spinelli, and he was far from being a criminal; in fact, he was an NYPD officer working undercover. The operation lasted three years and led to 42 arrests (21 were reputed Bonanno mobsters, the rest presumably were Luchese members, plus assorted associates -- plus there was at least one grandmother who lived in a social club in The Bronx).

Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York, restaurant known as Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)

Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

Anthony Colombo died on January 6 in San Diego of complications from diabetes.Anthony was Joseph Colombo's son.When Joseph Colombo learned a boss was planning to take out other New York bosses in order to take control of the Mafia's Commission, Colombo showed fealty to Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese, two of the key targets of the plotting. As a reward for his loyalty, Colombo was then named boss of one of New York's Five Families -- the Profaci family, which was rechristened the Colombo family.I've been working on a story about Anthony but meanwhile I thought it appropriate to republish a previous story we did with Anthony, a Q&A about a book he'd recently written about his father's shooting at the second Italian-American unity day.We want to thank Anthony Jr. for assisting Cosa Nostra News in getting the interview; we offer him and the Colombo family our solemn condolences.Anthony Colombo recently took the time to answer some questions for the following …

Year's Most Popular

Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York, restaurant known as Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)

Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

NOTE: We will update this -- again, we post it as it includes some questionable assertions. Let us know what you find correct or not, in the comments....We also hear that a friend of ours is sick -- we want to wish him well.... Get better, guy!
Many high-profile organized crime figures reportedly hail from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Many Bensonhurst wiseguys are gone today, dead, in prison or Witness Protection -- or in New Jersey.... Unless of course, they are in another part of Brooklyn or another borough or Long Island, or somewhere else (to cover all bases).

It's one of gangland's most high-profile, enigmatic hits -- and the identity of the killer has been debated for decades.

Thomas "Tommy Two-Guns" DeSimone killed a made member of the Mafia -- and for that, among other things, he was killed in what's been described as a classic setup. The truth is, we know very little about this murder, including who pulled the trigger. (Or fired up the chainsaw depending on who you believe). DeSimone, technically, disappeared, meaning there's zero evidence as to how he was killed; in fact, it can't be said with absolute certainty that he was killed.

Still, he was killed. Guys like him don't just disappear into thin air. They'd never leave New York because everything they want -- a certain lifestyle, basically -- is in New York and cannot be duplicated anywhere else.